Coyotes “faking” out the geese

The geese tended to outnumber the athletes on Mill Valley’s Tamalpais High School athletic fields until officials came up with a novel idea last year– fake coyotes.

The coyote lookalikes worked extremely well, scaring of the birds that seem to do nothing but eat and poop. According to the IJ, a whole bunch of the faux predators looked so life-like, that people even reported the “coyotes” thinking they were real.

When our photographer took the photo above, a high-schooler told him, “Hey dude, they’re not real.”

But last year the fake coyotes disappeared–someone stole them–and the geese reappeared in droves.

The second batch of coyote decoys are back on the field and, for now, the geese have flown the coop.